Letter Box

Posted:
05/23/2014 03:00:00 AM EDT

Please stop destroying our world

Editor of the Reformer:

Pollution is on the rise and it is deadly. It needs to be stopped. Did you know that according to DoSomething.org, pollution effects over 110 million people? Also according to dosomething.org, "46 percent of America’s ponds and lakes are too polluted for swimming, fishing, or aquatic life." I am concerned as a citizen of Brattleboro, that pollution is a gigantic problem affecting our health. I wanted to know how the world is doing, so I did some research on this topic. According to CNBC, "Fourteen billion pounds of garbage are dumped into the ocean each year." Did you also know that UNESCO says, over 220 million tons of plastic are produced each year? his is terrifying and cruel, because animals live in the ocean and most of the plastic ends up in the ocean, so if we are producing over 220 million tons of plastic each year than the marine animals are in extreme danger of extinction. Pollution needs to be stopped. I believe if we do not stop this immediately, that the world will become too toxic to sustain life any longer.

Some people may say that pollution isn’t effecting America. To that I respond with information I found from UNESCO: "America is a part of Earth, water is a part of Earth and in 2006 every square mile of ocean had 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

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" I would also say that I found out from US Energy that, "America has 4,000 more carbon dioxide emissions than Central and South America combined. (measured in million metric tons)."

Some people may say that pollution is only effecting the Earth, not living things. I do feel that the Earth is alive in the trees and in the soil and if the earth is hurt we can’t really just get up and move out. I could tell you how I found out on the scientists website that "Some people have been exposed to such high volumes of pollution that they suffer irritation of neck, throat, eyes and may possibly even suffer death." I could also tell you that I found on UNESCO’S website that "Plastic debris causes death of over a million seabirds and 10,000 marine mammals each year." I think that the most intense of all of these is the fact that UNESCO informed me of how "Over two million people die of pollution each year." This is awful and I think that you would think twice about dropping a straw on the ground, or not composting an apple core if you knew what would come of it and who would suffer.

People may get defensive and say "It’s not our fault." To them I have simply two responses: "14 billion pounds of garbage are dumped into the ocean every year by humans" and, according to CNBC, "China has possibly the most pollution problems in the world but, don’t blame them, all of their problems come from the things they make for us, Americans."

You might be asking yourself how do we stop this? I know that I would be thinking that. Here is a solution that I thought might help our problem of car emissions, try to walk to school or get a ride with another person. In the winter do not start the car early to defrost it. You could also ride your bike, skateboard or take the bus.

Another Problem is how there is too much waste being dumped into the ocean. An answer to that could be to simply compost and recycle. Almost all of the trash that we throw away ends up into the ocean. Most of it is also stuff like banana peels or apple cores, which, if you throw into the woods or into a compost box, it will not end up in the ocean and it could grow a tree, which would help a lot. Not only are you composting but you are also planting a tree which would help because plants breathe in carbon dioxide, if you take away plants then our oxygen would stop being clean and would end up having carbon dioxide in it, which would not be safe at all. It would be like drinking black water, but you have no choice of not drinking it.

There are a million more things about pollution that I could write about that destroy the earth, but instead of listening to them all, why don’t you try to boost the awareness of pollution. To help, you could make posters or signs that say how terrible pollution is and hang them in your school or local library. I hope that you are much more aware of pollution now than you were before. I believe that if we all try hard enough, that the world will stop being polluted. Thank you for listening to me, and thank you in advance for helping the earth.

Alanna McLaughlin Ward, is a member of Julie Rosenberg’s sixth-grade class at Academy School in Brattleboro.

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